Some Cuban migrants who couldn’t get green cards are getting surprises in the mail

When Dayami Moreno got a call from her mother last month that a letter from the government had arrived for her, she had already heard the stories. But she never thought she’d be one of the lucky ones.

The former history teacher from the Cuban province of Villa Clara rushed home. When she opened the letter she couldn’t believe her eyes. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had sent her a humanitarian parole that she had never even requested.

“I cried, I jumped, I called everyone, I thanked all the saints,” she told the Miami Herald.

A recent Board of Immigration Appeals ruling declared that recently arrived Cubans who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and were released from immigration custody with a document known as an I220-A are not eligible for green cards under the Cuban Adjustment Act, the 1966 law that gives Cubans a path to American citizenship.

But in recent weeks, some of the recently arrived Cubans, like Moreno, have gotten a pleasant surprise delivered to their mail boxes: unsolicited Immigration and Customs Enforcement paroles delivered to their homes and lawyers’ offices. Miami-area immigration lawyers say the parole documents mean those Cuban migrants can now apply for a green card.

The parole for Moreno, who says she fled political persecution in Cuba, is dated back to when she crossed the U.S.-Mexico border into Arizona in June 2021. She had applied for permanent residency in February through U..S Citizenship and Immigration Services. But the agency told her then that she needed to send evidence of a parole, which she couldn’t provide until now.

“I thank God every day because this is a blessing,” she said.

Immigration lawyers say they are happy for those who have gotten the surprise paroles, but that the development has created confusion in South Florida’s immigrant communities and highlights the inconsistencies of the U.S. immigration system.

“It is very frustrating to tell your client that you don’t know why immigration authorities are giving a benefit to some people and not others,” said Claudia Cañizares, a Miami lawyer who has at least seven clients who have received the unexpected paroles.

One of the common denominators appears to be that the Cuban migrants who have received the surprise parole documents had pending residency applications with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“Every time we hear about something, we try to tie it all together. And it’s all over the place, except the filing of the residency” applications, said David Claros, the Immigration Legal Services Director for Church World Services.

READ MORE: A new era for Cuban Migrants Some can’t get green cards despite decades old law

Citizenship and Immigration Services referred a Herald request for comment to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not answer questions about the surprise paroles. Meanwhile, ICE said it was looking into the Herald’s inquiry.

Randy McGrorty, the director of Catholic Legal Services, a Miami-based organization that offers legal services to immigrants, has had half a dozen Cubans come to his group’s offices in recent weeks with paroles that they had not asked for. He said the scenario is ripe for so-called “notario” fraud, when unethical notaries public charge immigrants for legal advice that they aren’t authorized to give.

“The lack of information, the lack of clarity, the seeming randomness put people at risk,” said McGrorty, “There is confusion within the legal community, the partner agencies, and it’s very discouraging.”

Miami immigration lawyer Wilfredo Allen says he has over a dozen clients who received surprise paroles by mail. He said that usually when he has previously requested parole on behalf of a client there is a letter attached spelling out why it was approved. But the recent parole grants provide no explanation.

“In my years of experience, this is the first time they have sent me a parole without requesting it,” he said.

This week, Allen requested paroles for three Cubans in immigration court proceedings. They were all denied within 24 hours. The lawyer thinks that the mysterious paroles arriving in people’s mailboxes are a way for the federal government to reduce the workload for immigration courts, which have over two million cases pending. Nearly 16% of all pending cases are in federal immigration courts located in Florida, according to Syracuse University’s TRAC, a data analysis and research organization.

“There are so many Cubans with I220-A, it’s impossible to process them in court, so I think it’s a way to start dealing with an administrative problem,” Allen said.

Other lawyers said there could be other explanations for the surprise paroles: That immigration authorities may be fixing improperly issued paperwork at the southern border; that the paroles are being sent out by mistake, or that the U.S. is granting the paroles to avoid future litigation about whether I-220A documents should be considered paroles for the purposes of the Cuban Adjustment Act.

For nearly six decades, eligible Cubans paroled or admitted into the United States have been able to apply for a green card a year after arriving in the country through the adjustment act. But amid a historical exodus from the island driven by political, economic and social turmoil, thousands of Cubans crossing the U.S.-Mexico border have received the I220-A document, which Homeland Security uses to release people in deportation proceedings from federal custody.

READ MORE: This federal ruling will keep many Cubans from getting green cards to stay in the U.S.

Cubans released with an I-220A had been facing hurdles to get their green card requests approved, although some have succeeded. Some lawyers and immigration judges have argued that releasing Cubans with just an I-220A form is illegal, that the federal government gave those Cubans the wrong documentation when released, and that they should have been issued a parole instead.

One Miami immigration lawyer, Mark Prada, has argued this several times in lawsuits on behalf of Cuban clients against Citizenship and Immigration Services.

In September, the Board of Immigration Appeals, which oversees immigration-courts appeals, ruled that the I220-As were not legally equivalent to a parole.

The board’s ruling was a crushing defeat for many Cubans with the I-220As, who hoped to become permanent residents under the Cuban Adjustment Act. They have organized demonstrations and are hosting an upcoming protest in Nov. 15 in Miami in front of Homeland Security offices.

Moreno obtained a work permit and a driver’s license through her asylum case. She works with children with autism, and she’s been focused on building a life in the United States. But she feared being deported and separated from her husband and children. The surprise parole put Moreno on the fast track to permanent residency, and a new future in her new home.

“I want all Cubans, who are fighters and entrepreneurs, who have crossed borders, left families and children behind, to be able to get legalized. For them to all get paroles and residency.”

This story was originally published November 8, 2023 at 3:05 PM.